Published May 6, 2024 | Version v1
Journal article Open

What makes a discovery?

  • 1. University of Chicago

Description

In this contribution to the proceedings of the 182nd Nobel Symposium, I reflect on the concept of "discovery" as it is used by physicists and astronomers. In particular, I comment on how the scientific community distinguishes discoveries from propositions that are supported only by lesser forms of evidence, emphasizing the social nature of this process and remarking on the subjective factors that go into making such judgments. I advocate for an approach that is intentionally Bayesian in nature, in which individuals are encouraged to evaluate and publicly state their priors and to update them systematically. I close by applying these practices to the case example of the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess.

Data availability

No data was used for the research described in the article.

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Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2024.116458
Other
oai:uchicago.tind.io:11727

Funding

U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics
DE-AC02-07CH11359

UChicago Information

Division(s)
Physical Sciences Division
Department(s)
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Center(s) or Institute(s)
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics